Plot
The plot is the organization of character and action in a work of narrative or drama in order to achieve particular effects. Plot is distinguished from story, which is the summary of the plot's incidents without considering how they are interrelated.
Introduction
Rising Action
Climax
Conclusion
Setting
Antagonist
Protagonist
The protagonist in a work of fiction is the character with whom the reader is meant to be chiefly concerned; she or he is the main character, who, whether sympathetic or not, is the focus of the plot. A work of narrative or drama may have more than one protagonist.
Round Character
Flat Character
Dynamic Character
Static Character
Conflict Types
Metaphor
is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as "Dark with excessive bright." The oxymoron was a common form of Petrarchan conceit.
Personification
is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as "Dark with excessive bright." The oxymoron was a common form of Petrarchan conceit.
Simile
Allusion
Oxymoron
is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as "Dark with excessive bright." The oxymoron was a common form of Petrarchan conceit.
Euphemism
is the use of roundabout language to replace colloquial terms that are considered too blunt or unpleasant.
Foreshadowing
Point of View
is the perspective from which a narrative is presented; it is analogous to the point from which the camera sees the action in cinema. (See also persona,tone,voice.) The two main points of view are those of the third-person (omniscient) narrator, who stands outside the story itself, and the first-person narrator, who participates in the story. The first type always uses third-person pronouns ("he," "she," "they"), while the latter narrator also uses the first-person ("I").
Omniscient
Satire
Satire arouses laughter or scorn as a means of ridicule and derision, with the avowed intention of correcting human faults. Common targets of satire include individuals ("personal satire"), types of people, social groups, institutions, and human nature. Like tragedy and comedy , satire is often a mode of writing introduced into various literary forms; it is only a genre when it is the governing principle of a work. (See also Irony.)
Symbol
is a sign representing something other than itself.
Theme
is sometimes used in the same sense as motif to signify recurring concepts in literature, the term mainly refers to the argument or general idea expressed by a literary work, whether implied or explicitly stated.
Irony: a. Dramatic
is a situation in which the reader or audience knows more about the immediate circumstances or future events of a story than a character within it; thus the audience is able to see a discrepancy between characters' perceptions and the reality they face. Characters' beliefs become ironic because they are very different or opposite from the reality of their immediate situation, and their intentions are likewise different from the outcome their actions will have.
b. Verbal
occurs when the words of a character or narrator have an implicit meaning as well as an ostensible one. The surface meaning may be false, or it may be a level of meaning that is just very different from the underlying one (which is usually more significant). One can guess when words should not be taken at face value by the context in which they occur--which includes the speaker's character, the situation, particular word associations, and a common ground of assumptions shared by the speaker and the reader.
c. Situational
occurs when a double level of meaning is continued throughout a work by means of some inherent feature such as a hero, narrator, or persona who is either naive or fallible (a participant in the story whose judgment is impaired by prejudice, personal interests or limited knowledge).
Imagery
The term imagery has various applications. Generally, imagery includes all kinds of sense perception (not just visual pictures). In a more limited application, the term describes visible objects only (especially ones that are vivid). But the term is perhaps most commonly used to describe figurative language, which is treated in modern criticism as a central indicator of meaning or theme in literature.
The plot is the organization of character and action in a work of narrative or drama in order to achieve particular effects. Plot is distinguished from story, which is the summary of the plot's incidents without considering how they are interrelated.
Introduction
Rising Action
Climax
Conclusion
Setting
Antagonist
Protagonist
The protagonist in a work of fiction is the character with whom the reader is meant to be chiefly concerned; she or he is the main character, who, whether sympathetic or not, is the focus of the plot. A work of narrative or drama may have more than one protagonist.
Round Character
Flat Character
Dynamic Character
Static Character
Conflict Types
Metaphor
is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as "Dark with excessive bright." The oxymoron was a common form of Petrarchan conceit.
Personification
is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as "Dark with excessive bright." The oxymoron was a common form of Petrarchan conceit.
Simile
Allusion
Oxymoron
is a type of paradox that combines two terms ordinarily seen as opposites, such as Milton's description of God in Paradise Lost as "Dark with excessive bright." The oxymoron was a common form of Petrarchan conceit.
Euphemism
is the use of roundabout language to replace colloquial terms that are considered too blunt or unpleasant.
Foreshadowing
Point of View
is the perspective from which a narrative is presented; it is analogous to the point from which the camera sees the action in cinema. (See also persona, tone, voice.) The two main points of view are those of the third-person (omniscient) narrator, who stands outside the story itself, and the first-person narrator, who participates in the story. The first type always uses third-person pronouns ("he," "she," "they"), while the latter narrator also uses the first-person ("I").
Omniscient
Satire
Satire arouses laughter or scorn as a means of ridicule and derision, with the avowed intention of correcting human faults. Common targets of satire include individuals ("personal satire"), types of people, social groups, institutions, and human nature. Like tragedy and comedy , satire is often a mode of writing introduced into various literary forms; it is only a genre when it is the governing principle of a work. (See also Irony.)
Symbol
is a sign representing something other than itself.
Theme
is sometimes used in the same sense as motif to signify recurring concepts in literature, the term mainly refers to the argument or general idea expressed by a literary work, whether implied or explicitly stated.
Irony: a. Dramatic
is a situation in which the reader or audience knows more about the immediate circumstances or future events of a story than a character within it; thus the audience is able to see a discrepancy between characters' perceptions and the reality they face. Characters' beliefs become ironic because they are very different or opposite from the reality of their immediate situation, and their intentions are likewise different from the outcome their actions will have.
b. Verbal
occurs when the words of a character or narrator have an implicit meaning as well as an ostensible one. The surface meaning may be false, or it may be a level of meaning that is just very different from the underlying one (which is usually more significant). One can guess when words should not be taken at face value by the context in which they occur--which includes the speaker's character, the situation, particular word associations, and a common ground of assumptions shared by the speaker and the reader.
c. Situational
occurs when a double level of meaning is continued throughout a work by means of some inherent feature such as a hero, narrator, or persona who is either naive or fallible (a participant in the story whose judgment is impaired by prejudice, personal interests or limited knowledge).
Imagery
The term imagery has various applications. Generally, imagery includes all kinds of sense perception (not just visual pictures). In a more limited application, the term describes visible objects only (especially ones that are vivid). But the term is perhaps most commonly used to describe figurative language, which is treated in modern criticism as a central indicator of meaning or theme in literature.